that seems like a reasonable response to a long time supporter of his.
its not their fault the economy sucks. they made a business decision. im sure the wake market is a small fraction of their business. I know anytime someone on WW asks for advice on sunglasses, Arnette isnt really mentioned too much, if at all.

Arnette commented on Byerly's photo saying
"Thank you Scott for your years of support and literally the creation of Wake Skating. It was a fun run; we're sad to leave the industry as well, and wish you the best in your future"

Which I thought to be tame/cordial considering his photo was of their products on fire hahaha

What's interesting is that Luxotica is the parent company for both Arnette and Oakley... I heard that Oakley was going to reduce their spending in wake as well in the near future. Maybe it was mandated by Luxoctica to cut spending.

Vandall has also been sponsored by them for a long time. i dont see too may people wearing Arnettes these days. Now it shows. Tough one for it to hit the wake industry. I hope the company just survives. How much do you think they were paying Byerly per year if he had to burn the stuff in reaction?

I have had them all and the Arnette stuff (goggles and glasses) were overpriced and of substandard quality and function. Smith Optics were much better all around. Oakley is overpriced for plastic.... Don't like to see anyone lose out on sponsorship perks but if you have ever run/ operated/ owned a business and its your capital investment going out the door you have to make some tough decisions. Some are easy and others are not so easy. I am sure that this was an easy decision based on product movement and the specific retail audience that it sold too.

What's interesting is that Luxotica is the parent company for both Arnette and Oakley... I heard that Oakley was going to reduce their spending in wake as well in the near future. Maybe it was mandated by Luxoctica to cut spending.

Bad news about Oakley too. Jack Blodgett was / is the team manager but I heard he may be doing other things this coming season. With that said once Nike contracts are up I am not sure they will be renewed either. All of the wakeskaters on the team wear Pro Model SB's.

We may blame these moves on the economy but it really comes down to how small the sport of wakeboarding has become. Why would a company like Oakley sustain these types of sponsorships? If we are into wakeboarding we are probably also into moto, pro sports, or winter sports. Those are much bigger markets and the dollars will go farther while still keeping us in the cross hairs.

Hey, as far as I know we still have Spy on our side. Big thanks to Bob Soven for keeping wakeboarding in front of the kids.

I agree on the Oakley thing. I have several pair, but I can't believe what they get for shades with molded plastic hinges.

Vandall is the only person I've seen wearing Arnette shades in the last 10 years. Their styles never evolved. And maybe they just didn't market well. Maybe Someone cool like VZ will pick them up.

They may be overpriced, but I actually see the molded plastic hinges as a benefit. I can get them wet without worrying about it and if I do something stupid like sit on them, the legs pop off instead of breaking like most shades would (this has happened to me before). It probably has nothing to do with the hinges, but I have also found that Oakley's are considerably lighter than comparable shades from other brands. My Spy Discords weigh about 3 times as much as my Oakley Holbrooks. Overpriced? probably, but they still put out a quality product.

With that said once Nike contracts are up I am not sure they will be renewed either. All of the wakeskaters on the team wear Pro Model SB's.

I doubt that will happen. Silas Thurman is the Wake team manager for Nike and he has done big things with Nike and wakeskating. They have made so that practically every wakeskater rides in Nikes. he was even able to transfer his wake team to Nike when Nike 6.0 was dissolved. If Nike wanted to scrap the wake team, they would have done it when 6.0 was canned.
Nike also is a huge sponsor for the wakeskate tour, and even signed another pro this year (Austin Pastura).
I can see them dumping the wakeboarders though since wakeboarders arent wearing Nike bindings. Its hard to advertise shoes when the riders are never shown in them.

But also, I'm being hopeful. If wakeskating loses Nike, there whole team is going to have to find a day job. They are one of the few sponsors that keeps riders wakeskating for a living and able to to road trips and build awesome set ups like Retention and Suwannee. Nike has done so much for wakeskating.

Maybe this is our fault hahaha
Does the wake community not do a good enough job telling companies like Nike/Arnette/Oakley that we appreciate their involvement?
I LOVED PUSHPROCESS
I heard rumors about a new oakley team film & Dear Oakley, where is it??
Don't leave our scene guys.

the best thing you can do in these instances is remember to buy from companies that support wake.

Have reef flops? Stop buying them.

Have board shorts from a company that doesn't sponsor a single rider? Stop buying them.

Have sunglasses from a company that will only pay their "pros" in product? Don't buy.

Exactly why stuff costs that much. Keep on buying all the overpriced gear on principle alone. Meanwhile I'll be doing some stereo upgrades this winter for roughly the cost of a few wake supporting shades, flip flops, and board shorts.

Still not cheaper than a pair of 4 way stretch from cire at end of the year prices of $20!

I have a pair of Annette's. But I'm not exactly the market they are targeting. I've had 3 pairs of sunglasses in the last 12-15 years. I dont lose em, break em, or really wear em all that often anymore. Being required to wear eyeglasses over contacts for 95% of my life kind of eliminates the need for sunglasses. I do find it humorous though that people have so many pairs lying around. Especially when they spend over $50 on each pair. Talk about a waste of money.

I would guess a lot of the sponsorship in wakeboarding is loss-leading when you analyse the response and impact of the various campaigns.

Pretty much most brands are either owned or made by the same people. You have an 8 in 10 chance your eyewear is from Luxottica directly or indirectly. So I am sure they have pushed their brands to perform in their markets and clearly they have decided Arnette have a different strategy planned now.

I wouldn't worry. There was a time when skateboarding almost fell off the face of the planet. Wakeboarding is still in it's infancy....plenty more to come.

I just don't get why people on here are so blind. I have been saying it on here for a long time. The "core rider" aspect of wakeboarding is and has been in a decline for a while. There is just not much money to be made in it and people that aren't involved in it don't look at it as very cool.

Sponsorship is about one thing - making money. If your spending more on a rider than the return then it's a bad business deal. There is very little money to make and a small market to reach buy sponsoring a wakeboarder. Especially if it's a non wake manufacturer.

Its because our sport is not a sport, it s a hobby, more people play water polo.lol how can you bash a company for pulling there fund, and putting it into a more profitable opportunity. Why dump good money at bad. I am not putting boarding down, i am just stating the truth. If you want support, get beer sponsors, truth is, boating is 90% drinking and 10% everything else.

90% drinking!! I enjoy a few cold-ones on the boat after riding, but my ratio is at least the converse, if not more.

Doug, You are way off. Arnette has been a weakened brand for a while. Ever since it has been Okaley's stepchild it has been a high quality "value" priced product. I'm sure that their marketing budget has been cut across the board. Wakeboarding is a great investment, but teams are expensive and I would bet that Arnette just didn't have the money to spend.

As for beer brands, I agree that beer sponsors (or at least local distributors) should be more involved in events. The Pro Tour used to be the Bud Tour. When I was in college our waterski team was sponsored by the local Miller distributor.

justin, i totally understand that you (maybe others) are using there boats to enjoy watersports, the drink is just the thank you for a great day on the boat. But i live on lake wylie in sc. my house is on the lake in the "party cove" (wife and i didn't know that was the party cove when we bought) every day 100+ boats roll in at 10 am and don't leave until sun down and in that group is 50 wakeboard boats. so i do understand buys like my crew who get up at 7 am to hit the glass but, most don't

It would make more sense going after local support and large companies that can toss 250k at it without a blink. merry xmas

I've gotta say, these companies seem to come and go. I think arnette has entered and left wake more than once. electric for sure has done that. it totally sucks. I think of something todd Richards said a long time ago, which was essentially to not burn any bridges in the industry because it's so small. Especially with brands coming and going, you just never know.

Anyway, I dug arnette way more when greg nelson, randy harris, Thomas horrell, cobe mikacich, and chase heavener were on the team (so like 96-99 or so). I couldn't get enough of that brand way back...probably the first sunglasses brand I cared about, and my celebrity worship was in full effect. I still have a ton of pairs of those shades--swingers, hotcakes, hoodoos and catfish. Fond memories of that branding and imagery, for sure.

J M. I still stand by what i said. I support people who support wake or make wake specific products first. ...and although i don't have anything from them, Wetsounds makes wake specific products.

I would have bought arnette back in the day. Not anymore. They don't support the sport I love. I actually am pretty loyal to Dragon anyway. How long have they sponsored Watson? Anyone else remember when Byerly was sponsored by them? Maybe he will go back.

Burning your X sponcers product is IMO burning bridges. This is a small industry and things like that don't go UN noticed or forgotten. I think a person that makes a living via sponcers is not doing them selfs any favors by doing stuff like this. Eric would have done much better had he Thanked Arnette for the YEARS of sponcership rather then trash them. How many people would have loved to receive a set of the glasses he burned up? This could have drawn attention to the situation in a positive way and had a greater chance of changing things.In the sponcership world it's all about "what have you done for me lately" so if you want to keep receiving free product and or money you and your sport better be relevant. I see some guys have developed a skill at always being in the thick of it. (Putting product out there) weather it's riding,organizing events, social gatherings ect. It's all part of keeping the swag comming.

Oakley sucks too. Anyone that would pay more than $40 for non-polarized shades with plastic hinges is an idiot.

Sunglasses are expensive no matter what brand, however, Oakley's lenses are the reason to buy Oakley. They are (or were as of at least 2005 or so) the only lenses that are both optically correct and safety rated. And that was standard on all eye wear, glasses, goggles….

When I worked at a shop years ago, we went down to oakley HQ and checked out their whole production process, got to put each of our sunglasses (VZ, Arnette, Black Flys, RayBans etc..) onto their dummy head display using lasers to see how correct the lenses are, needless to say my Arnettes were SOOOO off, as well as all the other brands… except Oakley of course. I always wondered why I got headaches when wearing glasses for long periods of time until I made the change to Oakley.

Maybe everyone else caught up… doubtful. Oakleys are the only glasses I wear for extend periods of time.

I dont' know the whole story behind the byerly image and what his feelings are, so I don't want to jump to conclusions. But my perception as an outsider was what made me think of that todd Richards quote.

I don't remember what everyone said about what, but the whole idea of supporting brands that support wake is an important concept and I'm fully behind it, so long as you're into the product. Leatherman has recently created an action sports accessory line and they've got a team sponsored, which includes Andrew Pastura (a wakeskater for you wakers who don't know). The illest representative they could ever pick from wakeskating...they posted an image on their instagram of him dropping some gap near lake conway and people were psyched on it. Blah blah blah, I will absolutely be buying something from that brand, and try to do my best to support the brands that either support wake or are just straight up wake. And honestly, I wouldn't have paid as much attention to the brand had I not seen anything from Andrew on instagram.

but for you snowboarders, they've collaborated with signal and have come up with some good tools for the slopes.

Arnette completely dropped their snowboard program too (discontinued their entire goggle line and scrapped all team riders), so this wasn't just wake specific cutbacks.
Oakley has done the same thing as well in wake, just not to the same extent. I think they are only 2 or 3 athletes left on the Oakley program?

On the same note, just saw Adam Errington got dropped by Red Bull. He no longer appears as a pro on the Red Bull website. I wonder after contracts start to end (all outside sponsors) this year, and next, how many guys/girls won't be renewed?